Dartmouth seeks resident input via little-used online survey

Tuesday

Mar 4, 2014 at 12:21 AMMar 4, 2014 at 12:48 AM

DARTMOUTH — If you are bothered by the condition of roads or the safety of your neighborhood, you can let the town know anonymously. For the third year, Dartmouth is soliciting residents' opinions through an online survey on the town's homepage.

By AUDITI GUHA

DARTMOUTH — If you are bothered by the condition of roads or the safety of your neighborhood, you can let the town know anonymously. For the third year, Dartmouth is soliciting residents' opinions through an online survey on the town's homepage.

"I hope residents would participate in the survey because it gives us valuable feedback on our services," said Town Administrator David Cressman.

Posted last month, the Dartmouth Citizen Satisfaction Survey asks people to weigh in on problems like weedy lots, the quality of street repair, as well as rate town services such as the quality of facilities management or IT services.

While most of the 16 questions are fairly straightforward — rate how safe or unsafe you feel in your neighborhood after dark — some are more esoteric asking residents to rate the town's "procurement services" or "risk management services."

The survey was originally created in 2012 out of a performance management project undertaken by the town but has not received a lot of responses, Cressman said, with 185 taking the survey in its first year and fewer last year.

Select Board member Bill Trimble, who hasn't taken the survey but said he plans to, said there hasn't been a lot of participation. He said he thinks people don't know it exists.

Getting the word out there will help, he said.

"More information is better than less. The more we know about how people feel, whether they think they are being served well, and what they'd like to see, the better it is."

Jacob Ventura, a former member of the Finance Committee, said he didn't know about it but took the survey after The Standard-Times called him.

"I think it's a step in the right direction to give town management a sense of how people think their services are delivered and how their tax money is spent. Hopefully the town can use that information to make government more efficient," he said.

Select Board member Michael Watson said he has not taken the survey yet and has not heard from residents about it.

"I know it's available online for people to take," he said.

The survey is expected to run through March and is available at town.dartmouth.ma.us.